The present invention relates generally to alarms and more particularly to an alarm that senses when a user has encountered an emergency situation and requires assistance. Great advances in the medical field have occurred, particularly in the second-half of the twentieth century. In addition, the U.S. public has generally increased its awareness of health issues and become more concerned with proper exercise. Accordingly, the average age of the U.S. population has steadily increased. Consequently, more senior citizens tend to be living alone in their own homes than ever before. Being solitary and away from family unity, there is increased potential risk of unattended emergencies.
Often, persons involved in serious accidents in their own home are found to have waited helplessly for hours before discovery. Persons who have encountered a serious accident may simply be unable to draw attention to their predicaments.
Some individuals living alone may require assistance, because of age or sickness, to simply rise up from a collapsed state. Other individuals, who are victims of multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, or simply prone to dizziness or sudden illness may similarly require assistance in rising.
Unfortunately, many presently available alarms are poorly suited to meet the needs of individuals who live alone and may require assistance in the case of an emergency. Some individuals may be unconscious while in an emergency state, unable to activate any alarm manually. Other devices may be prone to set off alarms whether or not the individual requires assistance simply because the individual has moved in an erratic fashion.
With some social alarm systems, SOS cards or flashing signs are placed in the home window to indicate an emergency situation. Window signs, however, do not guarantee a response and also undesirably advertise the vulnerability of the individual to the passing public.
Private wiring between and in adjacent to buildings was, for a time, a suitable alarm system in sheltered housing. Pushbuttons and/or pull cord switches, located near floor level, were strategically placed throughout the home and connected to the trigger circuit. This system included disadvantages however. For example, in order for it to work, the person needing help must be able to reach one of the pushbuttons or pull cords. In addition, the warden of the shelter must be available to monitor the indicators at a central station.
An alternative to private wiring in sheltered housing is a communication link through a two-way microphone-loud speaker unit. This system may be effective, for example, even if the person requiring help is on the floor some ten meters from the unit. If the houses were dispersed in a city, or if a rural area is considered, a long-range alarm transmission link is required. Such a system may similarly be triggered by pushbuttons and/or pull cords. In addition, individual users may be scanned a pre-set number of times per day and the user's failure to respond to the scan may be interpreted as an alarm or fault condition. Again, however, such a system requires constant monitoring by someone else at a central station and coherent consciousness of the user.
Another alarm system was developed which requires the user's home to be fitted with a combination unit consisting of a radio-frequency receiver and a telephone auto-dialer. Data dialer was triggered by the receiver as it sensed the transmitter signal. The activation of the signal was obtained by a pushbutton in the transmitter case. A telephone call was received by an unmanned computerized control station which may relay the calls for outside help. Such a system, however, failed to help an unconscious victim.
Present devices often require that the user press a button, pull a cord, or speak into an intercom to indicate that help is needed. Should the person become unconscious due to falling, heart attack, fainting, he/she may lie there for hours before anyone scans the user and is aware of his/her condition.